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At the recent Agile on the beach conference I was chatting to Paul Massey who runs BlueFruit Software in Redruth (which, by the way, is a great company to work if you're looking for a job as an embedded developer). I was reminded of something Paul mentioned to me a while back that relates to pair-programming.
He and a friend played go against other people on a server. Their go rankings were 8k and 9k respectively.
Interestingly, they then played against other people as a pair. And their joint-ranking went up to 6k. Paul writes:

When I play go, I have a problem that I struggle to find the patience for strategic thinking. I combat this problem by doing strategic thinking when my opponent is playing and tactical thinking when it's my turn. Yesterday I realised the parallel with pair programming, i.e. tactical thinking when at the keyboard, and strategic thinking when away from the keyboard. Both are important.

If you'd like me to run a private cyber-dojo for you please
email me. I love travelling (especially to places where you can fly-fish for atlantic salmon) and meeting new people. There is often no charge but I do ask you to cover my travel expenses.

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about me

I'm 30 years old (hex). I've loved software since I was 10 (dec). I run my own software consultancy specializing in practice, people, process, agility, test driven development, and complex-adaptive systems-thinking. I built cyber-dojo.org to promote deliberate practice for software developers. I've worked with Accenture, Aviva, Cisco, Ericsson, Friends Provident, HP, Microsoft, Opera, Ordnance Survey, RBS, Reuters, Renault F1, Schlumberger, Tandberg and many many more. If you don't like my work I won't invoice you.
I'm the ex ECMA TG2 C# convenor. I'm the current ACCU conference chairman.
I've had some C# books published. I'm married to the beautiful Natalie, and proud father of Ellie, Penny and Patrick. I love freshwater coarse fishing and salmon fishing (spey casting).
I live in Somerset, England. On twitter I'm @JonJagger